It was the evening of the next day.
We climbed into the carriage. I gazed out the window without a word. The carriage kept jostling over the cobblestone road, making it impossible to take in the scenery in peace. I simply closed my eyes. Lapis was just as silent as I was. We arrived at the palace of Niflheim in that quiet manner.
When we stepped down at the palace's main gate, an old woman greeted us. She was a witch whose back was bent and bent again to the point where her face nearly touched her knees. The pointed hat she wore on her head was so absurdly large that it slid all the way down, and would have covered her entire face if not for her hooked nose getting in the way.
She spoke in a squeaky, mouse-like voice.
"His Excellency Dantalion, ranked seventy-first?"
"That is correct."
"Hmm, Dantalion… Dantalion… Oh, here you are."
The witch traced something onto a piece of parchment with her finger.
"You were easy to find, being right at the bottom. You're in a much better position than those awkward ones ranked like thirty-second or forty-sixth. A person ought to be in a position that's easy to find, after all. Hee hee. Now then, Your Excellency. From here, you need only follow this little one."
She pointed to where a black cat was standing. The moment the cat saw us, it straightened both front legs and snapped to attention in a salute. It was dressed smartly in a red military uniform, like a toy soldier. I had never seen such a cute little creature.
For some reason, I was in a pleasant mood and saluted the cat back. Lapis nudged my side with her elbow. Presumably a reminder to maintain the dignity of the Demon Lord.
"Listen well, little one. Hee hee."
The cat's name was Heeho.
The witch playfully lifted the cat's chin.
"Enter that alley, go down the uphill road, then up the downhill road, turning and turning, three rights and three lefts, that makes nine turns in total, then stroll down the narrow road as though it were wide, slip through the broad road as though it were narrow, step over the stride and forget the stride, and by the time you've even forgotten the very act of walking—step over the stride of the stride and dance in four beats—at that point you will have arrived at the far end of the alley. Guide this person all the way to the very tip of that end."
The cat saluted once more to indicate it understood.
"…What in the world was that grandiose nonsense?"
"A sophisticated spell," Lapis whispered.
"It's an incantation that lets you cut straight through the labyrinth. The roads will have been twisted so that anyone who doesn't hear those words can never find their way out."
"Hmm, it doesn't seem like she actually used magic."
"That means she's a great witch capable of manifesting magic without expending any mana."
That old woman?
Curiosity sparked within me. In truth, I hadn't encountered a single proper powerhouse until now. If what Lapis said was true and she was a grand witch, then she would surely display more dazzling stats than anyone I had met so far.
'Status Window.'
A familiar sound effect played, and a hologram appeared.
──────────────────────────
[Name] [Stamina] [Attack] [Defense]
- Humbaba 65 109 51
──────────────────────────
"……"
My apologies. I failed to recognize a blatant cheat-tier character.
No, seriously, our dungeon would be completely annihilated if even one person like this stormed in. A single spell would obviously wipe out units of golems and whatnot by the battalion.
A character of this caliber was serving merely as a guide at the assembly of Demon Lords. The fact that I was an F-rank Demon Lord and my dungeon was an F-rank dungeon now hit me with a chilling clarity.
"Hehe. Just follow the path this little one walks. Should you stray from the path at all, something very interesting will happen."
"Out of pure curiosity, I must ask. What is this 'interesting thing'?"
"Something as fun as having arms grow out of your mouth, hehehe."
I can say with absolute certainty that it sounds devoid of any fun whatsoever.
The black cat strutted forward with mechanical precision, like a nutcracker soldier. Following it, I meticulously placed my feet exactly where the cat had stepped, my heart tight with tension. I could feel Lapis's pitying gaze from the side, but there was nothing I could do. I had no desire whatsoever to gain a third arm from my second, and I was absolutely determined to avoid an arm sprouting from inside my mouth. And so, we passed through the palace's grand entrance, the dark garden, some indistinguishable corridor, and through one intersection after another, finally arriving at the ballroom.
Click!
The cat performed a salute at the bottom of the ballroom staircase, as if to say, "Here we are." It was so unbearably adorable that I grabbed its chin and rubbed it vigorously. The cat let out a pleased meow and purred with contentment.
Good heavens. What is this? Is this cat yokai not humanely too cute? It's cute to a degree that's practically illegal. Legal punishment is warranted. Which is why I shall first confine it in my Demon Lord's Castle. Not because I'm trying to satisfy some base desire of mine, but purely and solely to uphold the laws of the world. That's the reason. Definitely.
"Dantalion, sir."
"Ugh, fine."
Nagged by Lapis, I climbed the ballroom stairs. There were no guards or attendants. Once we passed through the enormous, ornate marble doors that were already wide open, a voice rang out from somewhere.
— Ranked 71st, Lord Dantalion enters!
Should I even call this a ballroom? Unlike anything I'd seen in movies or books back in my original world, the vast hall was pitch dark. Giant candles, large as people themselves, were placed intermittently throughout — the only source of illumination. Their bright yellow flames cast light on the faces of the attendees.
They were all staring at me, the newcomer who had just walked in. This bizarre scene, one that could rightly be called a gathering of ghosts, was enough to make anyone lose their nerve.
*'But I can't afford to look weak.'*
I immediately activated my Acting skill.
"Acting skill has been activated."
"Bonus effects based on Intelligence and Charisma stats will be added to the skill."
That was when something absolutely devastating happened. A horrible, metallic sound effect filled my ears.
"Multiple skills are interfering with your skill activation!"
"You rolled the dice, but a crow flying overhead snatched the dice out of the air. Skill activation failed!"
Wh-what did you say?
The mechanical voice poured out words I had never heard before, without pause.
"Due to an 'overwhelming' difference in ability, your skill activation has failed. A penalty will be applied. You cannot activate this skill for the next three hours."
"As a penalty, your Intelligence stat has decreased by 5."
"As a penalty, your Charisma stat has decreased by 5."
My jaw was practically on the floor. What kind of bolt from the blue was this?
Thanks to Lapis discreetly stepping on my foot, I snapped back to reality. I let out a faint "hu" as I surfaced from my daze and moved my feet. Then I casually settled into a spot near a pillar.
Voices drifted over from afar.
"That's the kid who killed Andromalius? Doesn't look like much."
"I honestly thought some lunatic Demon Lord had murdered a fellow Demon Lord, but he turns out to be surprisingly ordinary."
"Told you he'd be dead sooner or later. Hmph, what a brain-dead vagrant."
"Something happened just now, it seemed…"
There was no shortage of slander about me. But I had no room to worry about it. The Acting skill, though far from reliable, was the only thing I could cling to.
With it shattered, I was engulfed in extreme anxiety. If Lapis hadn't been standing firmly and calmly by my side as always, I might have put on a pathetic spectacle throughout the ball. The thought that I couldn't show her a disappointing sight was the only thing holding my knees up. Fortunately, the interest in me faded quickly, and the Demon Lords grouped up in their own little clusters, whispering among themselves. Not a single one of them approached me.
Behind me, three or four more Demon Lords arrived — figures whose names I had grown all too familiar with through Dungeon Attack. Once the last Demon Lord entered, the enormous gates swung shut.
Someone strode out to the center of the hall. It was an elderly gentleman dressed impeccably in a pristine white uniform.
The old man bowed politely in each direction in turn, then continued speaking in an unhurried tone.
"I welcome all you Demon Lords who have graced Walpurgis Night with your presence. It is my great honor — I am Ivar Lodbrok, one of the seven executives of the Kunkuska Trading Company, and I have been entrusted with moderating this gathering."
A very modest round of applause followed. It seemed only about six people were clapping. It was an embarrassingly sparse ovation for welcoming a host, yet Ivar bowed at the waist once more as though profoundly moved.
My face twisted into a deep scowl. Ivar Lodbrok was also a character who appeared in the mid-to-late stages of Dungeon Attack. But his appearance was nothing like what I had known.
'Ivar wasn't supposed to be some old geezer like that, was he?'
I wanted to ask Lapis, who worked for the same Kunkuska Trading Company, about the situation, but my lips wouldn't easily part. I was undeniably nervous right now. I could always ask later.
"First, allow me to outline the agenda for this gathering. The first item concerns the dispute over a successor that arose in the Infernal Heat Abyss..."
"Wait."
A sharp female voice cut in.
"I didn't come all this way to sit around and argue about Demon Realm business. That sort of thing will sort itself out naturally over the course of this three-day cesspool of a meeting. For today, I just want to eat and drink what I please."
Ivar scowled, looking troubled. His expression said he wanted to say something but couldn't bring himself to do it.
A man across from the woman spoke up.
"Uneducated wench, as expected—how vulgar. There is a proper procedure to meetings."
"Drop the cheap provocations, won't you, milord? If others overheard, they'd think you were terribly passionate about the gathering. Hehe~ I saw you dozing off from the middle of the last meeting, you know."
"That's a baseless slander."
Due to the dim lighting, the faces of those speaking were barely visible. Only their lips seemed to jut out, floating in the black darkness. This time, someone from yet another direction—from across from me—joined the conversation.
"The two of you are at it again. When, oh when, will we ever hold a civilized, Demon Lord–worthy conference? This girl is honestly curious. They went so far as to hire the True Ancestor of the Kunkuska Trading Company as the moderator—I could just sigh."
"Blech, give me a break with that sickening speech pattern."
The woman who had spoken first said with undisguised revulsion.
"If your idea of a civilized conference is putting on a show of 'oh my, oh my' with a voice dripping with hypocrisy and lies, then I'd rather be a barbarian from a goblin village. You think I don't know about you fooling around with minotaurs every night? Hey, prostitute—either make your upper lips as cheap as your lower ones, or make your lower lips as decent as your upper ones. Pick one."
"What would I even say to a woman snorting like a cow in heat? My dear fellow Demon Lords."
The refined woman walked to the center of the hall. Only then could I see her face properly. The moment I saw her, I knew who she was—it was Paimon, ranked a staggering ninth in Dungeon Attack.
With her shimmering red hair, she was the Succubus Queen who had duped countless players. I myself had once fallen prey to that Demon Lord and been sent to a game over. Seeing in the flesh someone I'd only known through illustrations was a strange feeling.
"I too think it's rather inappropriate to spend the first evening debating tedious agenda items. Surely it would be better to begin with some socializing first. Those of you who've built up grudges—don't you need a chance to decide whether you'll bury them deeper or settle them?"
She glanced around the room. That's when a sense of foreboding washed over me. It seemed as though she was looking this way—straight at me.
"But before that, there's something that needs to be made clear. Among us, there is a murderer who killed one of our own kind. It would be impossible to mingle with such a person."
My foreboding was confirmed. She was definitely staring right at me.
"He was lacking and shameful, but Andromalius was still one of us. He was a member of our Demon Lords, of whom there are only seventy-two in the entire world. I trust that you, gathered here, fully understand the weight of what it means for a Demon Lord to have died."
Following her gaze, countless eyes turned this way.
I unconsciously swallowed, my throat suddenly dry.
"Before commencing the meeting and the ball, the girl believes the Demon Lord of Rank 71, Dantalion, must be summoned for questioning. To this end, I, Paimon, Demon Lord of Rank 9, officially request a hearing be held here and now."